Peter McIlvride stands outside the combined house, post office, general store, and tearooms, viewed from the roadside.
Originally built in the 1860s, the McIlvride family home was one of the earliest in Wainuiomata. Situated on 30 acres of farmland between Moores Valley Road and the river, the modest cottage was gradually expanded to include a general store, post office, and tearooms. By around 1938, however, its days were numbered, as the Wainuiomata Development Company prepared to subdivide the land for housing along what would become Moores Valley Road.
In 1939, the store attached to the home was moved by the then owner Claude Williams to its new location on the Main Road where it became the Williams General Store, (see a 1939 photo in the gallery below).
Credits
Special thanks to Carl Smith for some information in this article.
